“I can’t believe we’ve stumbled across an advanced society,” Hong sounded up, “Radio transmissions - and in English.”
“It’s not English,” Neidermeyer said, annoyed.
“It is,” the Captain argued, “Coming from the ship’s survivors? Can that be possible?”
The sensor array came to life. It died a second later.
“Sir, I’m having enormous trouble with the sensors. If you’ll excuse me, I think I need to get down to the forward engineering station,” Neidermeyer was already unfastening the hatch beneath the large main view screen. He had a lot of practice and the four locking corners were open in twenty seconds. He slid the door aside and looked back at the captain. Greyson nodded and Neidermeyer jumped feet first into the hatch. It closed shut behind him and the four latches clicked shut again.
Captain kept listening to the sounds from Greyson’s console. “Can’t you clean this up any? Is it possible that the Spirit is sending these signals? Tell me that these signals can be coming from the Spirit of the Future.”
“That is it cleaned up, sir. There’s just too many signals. It’s definitely not coming from the Spirit. Sir, these are alien signals coming from an alien world.”
“In English,” Gordon mused, “It’s not possible.”
The alien world filled the view screen. Clouds, oceans and blue like the blue of Earth. Bright from a sun that shone somewhere to the left. A large brown moon was visible behind the planet, peeking out shyly. Grayson stared and considered the moon for a few seconds before he realised it was another planet. He stepped closer to Hong and put his hand underneath the science officer’s hands.
“Excuse me… let’s just pan around a little bit.”
He adjusted the forward facing camera and the big blue world on the view screen started to move to the right. More of the distant brown world became visible. Greyson stopped moving the camera.
“Clouds. Water,” Hong observed, “I think I see some blue too. Water. Life, potentially. But what‘s that? That’s another planet - or a moon. Difficult to tell without the sensors, Captain, but let me zoom in.”
The distant planet of Relathon was a distant green disc among the field of stars. Captain Gordon hadn’t noticed it before but as he looked closer the green disc, now magnified, reminded him of times he’d viewed Venus from the lunar astronomy centre.in the Sea of Tranquillity.
“Planet,” Hong and the captain said together. Gordon continued to turn the camera round. The bright Enrilean sun, not unlike Earth’s sol, filled the screen with light.
The view screen automatically dimmed the Enrilean sun to the point that the Captain’s eyes barely stung as he looked at it. He tweaked Hong’s console. The sun shrank and moved away to the right and then off the edge of the screen.
The sensor array came to life and flooded the view screen with data. The sensor array went offline again, then it came back and stayed back. Neidermeyer had succeeded. The data stayed on the screen, the characters changing from red to green in a quick three seconds.
“Well holy cow,” the Captain said, “Look at this.”
“I know,” Hong breathed, “I know.”
The star at the centre of the system was a GV type star slightly larger than Earth’s sol. There were six planets, but the three Captain Gordon was interested in were the blue planets. Or the two blue planets and the one brown planet. The two blue planets were roughly the same size as Earth. The brown planet was about twice the size.
“These radio signals are coming from the two blue planets,” Hong reported, “And you’re not going to believe this.”
He touched his fingers to two of his smaller screens. The radio chatter disappeared. Gordon was about to complain. He’d been trying to isolate one of the transmissions in his mind and he felt, incorrectly, that he’d been getting close to working out whether or not is actually was English. He opened his mouth to speak, but what happened next took his breath away.
The voice was obviously female. It was faint, distant. Hong tidied up the signal a little and the singing became louder. Gordon found himself smiling. It was a reflex action. The voice was sweet and light. She was singing like a songbird, a long sliding note that sounded almost orgasmic. Then there were the strings. Gordon thought he recognised the sound of a cello and a violin or two. He couldn’t believe that he was listening to alien music. He couldn’t stop grinning. Hong noticed and he was infected by it, smiling too. It was like listening to something from another time more than from another planet.
“Amazing,” the science officer said, “An FM radio station. Very high power. Like we’ve tuned into Earth in the mid twentieth century.”
Gordon raised his hand. The strings were rising, swelling. The song reminded him of something his father used to listen to. But it wasn’t mid twentieth century. More like late twentieth or early twenty first century. And the singer wasn’t using words, he realised suddenly. Her performance was non lexical. The soft, mournful and simultaneously ecstatic sounds were just sounds. She was sighing, crying, screaming. It was delightful and tragic all at once. Then, suddenly, her voice was gone. Hong had selected a new transmission from the dozens that Greyson had isolated. This one was male. And this one was speaking English.
“…stronger than most but weaker than some. But stronger, of course, than all of the Relathon. Even during the war. I find that very difficult to believe,” there was dry, forced laughter, “That, my friend, is the world we live in. These are our rulers. This is the way of things.”
Hong came to listen. He was going to speak, but Gordon waved his hand furiously. Another voice answered the one that had just been heard. This time the man sounded nervous. The English was unremarkable, but he couldn’t place the accent.
“It’s English,” Greyson said from the other side of the command room, “All of it. It’s all English. And I’m getting transmissions from two of the three habitable planets. Mostly from the nearest planet, but…”
“Christ Greyson!” Gordon snapped, “Let me listen to this.”
The bridge was silent again apart from the one alien English speaking voice.
“…our place to question the Empire. All of that was established decades ago. Our place has been settled. We were born to serve the Enrileans. Our subjugation during the war proved that.”
“Subjugation? Tell me, Orr, what was your role in the war?” then there was a pause, “As I expected. And I’m surprised it took you so long.”
There was a sudden thump. Then silence. Five seconds of silence. Then music. Hastily slotted in music.
“Elevator music,” Gordon observed, “They cut him off. What are we listening to? “
“It’s the most powerful radio transmission I’m getting. It’s coming from the nearest planet. A big city - bigger than New York or Glasgow. There are hundreds of smaller transmissions coming from the same place. Much weaker, I might add.”
The voice had returned. It sounded more serene. For a second Gordon thought it might be a different person, but he was sure it was the same voice he’d heard
“…apologise for the disrespectful comments made by representative Orr. As many of our regular listeners will know, the representative’s wife was recently killed in a tragic accident. I apologise to all of our Enrilean listeners as well as our regular audience in the city. Needless to say, the representative’s views in no way reflect any opinions or… er… beliefs held by anyone at this station.
“As representative Orr will sadly no longer be able to continue with the interview, we’re going to make a change to the scheduled broadcast. Of course, we’ll be giving you updates on the incident at Jann Linn city when we have more news. For now, I’m going to say goodnight and switch over to a recording of last week’s broadcast.”
Captain Gordon had a lot of questions and a lot of thoughts. He turned to Hong and opened his mouth to speak. But the look on Hong’s face killed the sounds in his throat. And when the ship juddered violently all of his questions and confusion came
out in one loud grunt.
“Sir, we’ve just been bombarded by some kind of energy weapon,” Hong reported sharply, “I think… I think we’re under attack.”
THIRTEEN
2195AD - USS Drake.
Justice Six was a powerful destroyer. Her twin energy blasters were capable of ripping through the thin armour of even the largest Relathon ships – even at the extremes of their considerable range. They alone had claimed the lives of over eighteen hundred brave Relathon space troopers. The USS Drake had never been involved in an actual combat situation before. It had taken part in twenty eight training exercises. In its career it had never been fired upon by anything more than low power training lasers. It had never dodged real missiles and the reactive armour had never repelled an attack. The Justice Six was one hundred kilometres behind the Drake when her energy cannons fired. The beams of charged particles streaked through space in a fraction of a second and struck the main engine nozzle of the Drake’s fusion drive system. The single emission from the twin cannons lasted for a third of a second. Even though the nozzle was barely scorched, the combustion chamber next to it ruptured from the sudden, immense heat and energy. A tiny amount of fuel material escaped and ignited, causing a brilliant but harmless flash of light. Jaxx squeezed the gunner’s shoulder and smiled. He didn’t realise that the damage to the USS Drake had been superficial. Justice Six powered recklessly towards the Drake as the main cannons recharged.
“We’re under attack!” Hong said, “Some kind of energy weapon. The main drive has been damaged.”
“Who… what is it?” Gordon shouted. His mind raced, “Get us out of here. Full countermeasures. Battle stations, all sections.”
The USS Drake’s countermeasures were complex. Many of them could have no possible effect on an unknown and apparently alien enemy, but there was no time to pick and choose which countermeasures to activate. McIlwraith followed the Captain’s lead and triggered everything. As Herring turned the nose towards the approaching alien battleship, electronic “noisemakers” sparkled forward from the nose of the ship and from the port and starboard, dorsal and ventral emitters. At the same time, useless multi band missile jammers started shrieking out distracting and contradictory data streams on frequencies used by the various guided missiles of terran spacecraft. None of the shrieking missile jammers affected Justice Six in the slightest, but the noisemakers confused the Enrilean weapons officer and the ship’s guidance systems. The second burst from the twin cannons obliterated one of the noisemakers. Broad spectrum lasers from the remaining noisemakers blinded the Enrilean ship’s sensors for a precious second or two. Enough time for the Drake to face its attacker and for McIlwraith to bring the weapons systems to bear.
“What a spectacle,” Jaxx observed, watching the twinkling noisemakers and flickering multi-coloured laser patterns, “This is their counterattack? A light show?”
“I think it’s some kind of defensive system,” the tactical officer said, “They are turning to face us Admiral.”
“Blast them again,” Jaxx said coldly, “Forward cannons full power. Stand by chain guns port and starboard - speed them up, Loonifr”
“Powering up the bullet guns,” Loonifir reported, “Captain, I think the alien ship is charging up some kind of weapon system.”
“So they fancy their chances, do they?” Jaxx’s horrific mouth smiled insanely, “Obliterate them.”
McIlwraith was quicker than his alien counterpart, Loonifir. The USS Drake’s most powerful weapon was a massive ion cannon mounted under the sensor array and running almost the entire length of the ship. Normally the cannon took twenty seconds to fully charge. Luckily, Neidermeyer had brought the sensor array back to life by charging the ion cannon which sucked the excess energy from the scrambled array. McIlwraith fired the ion cannon at the approaching alien battleship. The ion cannon was powerful, but so was the Enrilean battleship. The ion cannon tore off the starboard bullet gun and scorched part of Justice Six’s engineering section. But the portside rotary bullet gun opened fire and struck the USS Drake’s ion cannon. The gun fired thirty bullets in a half second. Ten of the hard metal tipped explosive bullets whizzed underneath the ship and harmlessly past the Drake. The other twenty found their target and hammered into the large ion cannon, damaging it in a flare of igniting coolant and disintegrated components. The navigational sensor array was damaged by the exploding ion cannon, but the heavily armoured tactical sensors were protected.
“Ion cannon has been damaged,” Lieutenant Hong said, “Some kind of rapid firing projectile weapons system. They’re continuing to fire. Looks like it’s quite a heavily armed ship, sir. And it looks like they mean business.”
“Well we mean business too. McIlwraith, weapons free. Hong, scan the ship for vulnerable points. There has to be a command centre - a bridge. Find it and hammer it hard. Continue with countermeasures. Load rail guns three and four with hard sabot; one and two with rapid bang. Let’s get some ordnance back at them.”
Captain Gordon glanced at the forward access hatch, hoping that Neidermeyer would emerge and not knowing that he’d never see his friend again. Neidermeyer was lying dead - curled up like a little boy on the outside of the hatch. He’d unfastened two of the four latches before drawing his last breath. Neidermeyer hadn’t realised that he was about to die. He had been in shock - deafened by the massive explosion of the ion cannon - and hadn’t felt the large semi cylinder of toughened glass cutting open his thigh and exposing the artery there. The electronic noisemakers were disrupting Justice Six’s targeting system. The computer targeting system was trying to find the Drake’s vital systems and kept returning to the various energies produced by the electronic countermeasures - something the Justice Six’s computer systems had never had to deal with before. Loonifir didn’t even know what the countermeasures were and when the remaining bullet gun decided to target one exclusively he didn’t override it. The remaining chain gun blew apart two of the six noisemakers before the Drake’s rail guns fired hard spears of heavy metal and tightly packed explosives at the alien ship. Travelling thirty times faster than the Enrilean bullets, the heavier rail gun projectiles shredded the chain gun and tore six of the eight portside thrusters. The explosive spectacle rose a cheer from the Drake’s bridge crew.
“Target hit and damaged, sir!” McIlwraith said wryly.
“Excellent,” the Captain nodded, “Communications, see if you can contact them. Neil, get those rail guns ready to fire again. If they still think they’ve got a fight in them we’ll blow them to Hell.”
Jaxx was furious. He had it in his mind to shoot Loonifer in his stupid face for targeting the alien fireworks display instead of the ship itself, but Loonifer’s next act was one of pure and glorious redemption. The forward cannons discharged simultaneously, smashing the two twinkling noisemakers in front of the USS Drake. But the energy didn’t stop there. The USS Drake’s bridge section, mounted twenty meters above the smouldering remains of the Ion cannon and sensor array, took the energy cannon blast for a full three seconds. The strong electromagnetic shielding round the bridge deflected most of the particle beam energy for the first second, but the onslaught was too great. Lieutenant Hong, aware of the danger, tried to bolster the bridge EM shielding by channelling power from the remaining Ion cannon capacitors. He couldn’t do it fast enough and the EM shield overloaded and failed with a spectacular flash of white blue light. The bridge section of the USS Drake was flooded with charged particles. Only Hong and McIlwraith might have realised that death was so near. Every electronic system in the bridge came alive with blue lightning as the bridge officers caught fire and became screaming, flailing agonized mannequins. Their agony lasted for fleeting moments as the high power cannons incinerated them all. Hard Edge’s main cannon prepared to fire again. Loonifir had no idea how serious a blow he’d dealt the alien ship. Jaxx didn’t suspect either. The USS Drake’s forward section was ablaze, but the three remaining noisemakers concealed that fact from Justice Six’s s
ensors. The Drake’s command centre automatically changed to the ship’s engineering section, but the Drake didn’t have much of a chance. The blast that had destroyed the bridge had crippled the tactical sensors, blinding the Earth ship. The final blast from Justice Six’s cannons caught the Drake amidships, striking the engineering section and detonating the explosive rail gun ammunition stored there. The ship was cut in half as it exploded. The burning forward section tumbled away, glowing green and blue and orange. The rear section continued to break apart as more explosions continued to fire off further and further aft until, in one massive white blaze, the remainder of the engine nozzle and the fuel there ignited. There were seventy eight survivors floating in life pods or stranded in sealed compartments. Captain Jaxx was in no mood for survivors. He was already idly contemplating their murder as he watched the Drake’s debris.
2195AD - Jann Linn Mountain.
“I watched the rain fall. I tried to count the raindrops and I realised that I couldn’t. I could freeze time for a moment. I could freeze time and count the raindrops in that moment, but in the next moment there were more and more raindrops. And I couldn’t freeze enough moments to count them all. I couldn’t store all the moments. I hurt myself trying. I remember learning the lesson. I remember realising that I had limitations - that I couldn‘t count them all. And then. And then I remembered what father told me. That I wasn’t to do it. I wasn’t to do it because there wasn’t any point to it. There wasn’t any end to it. The raindrops or the stars.”
The mountain was cold. There was a minor dust storm. She could hear screams two miles to the south. There were people there screaming and dying and injured. The dust storm was not good. Some of her components were exposed. She was damaged. She could not tell to what extent. But without some of her protective covering - and even with all her protective covering - the dust would hurt her. She couldn’t help the people. She couldn’t risk going further into the dust storm. But there was another reason she did not want to go back. She was afraid.
Beyond the Starport Adventure (Bullet Book 1) Page 23
